1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to defoliating apparatus and especially to such apparatus to remove the lower leaves from tobacco plants in order to improve crop yield.
2. Discussion of Related Art
A tobacco plant contains upper leaves which have industrial value. Plants also contain lugs which normally constitute the bottom four leaves of the plant. These lugs have no price support and are not generally used commercially. It is known that these unwanted and unsupported lugs reduce the tobacco plant's ability to grow desirable upper leaves and thus reduce crop yield per acre. Tests have shown that tobacco plants delugged at topping have a greatly increased value over tobacco with the lugs harvested and an even greater return per acre over tobacco with the lugs left unharvested. Accordingly, it is highly desirable to effect removal of these lugs quickly and inexpensively.
Various devices have been suggested for defoliating certain areas of growing crops. For instance, U.S. Pat. No. 3,570,228, issued Mar. 16, 1971 to Phillips, shows a deleafer for Brussels sprout plants and the like, which comprises a transverse frame disposed to a height to clear a row of plants. A pair of arms, one longer than the other, extend rearwardly from the frame and are adapted to swing on substantially vertical axes. A vertical axis cutting assembly is rotatably mounted on the end of each arm and has tangentially disposed knives of a length commensurate with the height of the plants. The knives are rotated reversely with respect to each other. U.S. Pat. No. 3,601,959, issued Aug. 31, 1971 to Pinkham, shows an apparatus for defoliating vertically limited sections of tobacco plants. The apparatus comprises a pair of flexible, rotating webs having scalloped twisted edges. The webs are mounted in a framework and drawn along the lower portion of a tobacco plant for removing leaves located thereon. U.S. Pat. No. 3,892,061, issued July 1, 1975 to Whitley, shows a defoliator mechanism for removing leaves from a portion of the stalk of a row of plants. The mechanism comprises a support which is movable along a predetermined path adjacent the row of plants. A pair of rotors are moved along opposite sides of each plant. Each rotor contains at least one finger-like elongated, resilient defoliating member fixedly secured at one end only to the rotor and extending therefrom with the other end being unsupported and held in cantilever fashion such that the finger-like member may flex and move independently of the rotor as it engages leaves on plants during the defoliating operation.